Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.28.12
Posted on May 28th, 2012
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”: In reality nothing exists in the world besides one single soul, which is divided by man’s egoism into 600,000 parts and a multitude of spiritual sparks.
A unified soul was created, and nothing else. Only it exists, and we are always inside of it. And if it seems to us that this is not so, that is because we are flawed. To me the general vessel divides into my “self” and “others” instead of appearing to me as an integral whole where there is only “we”. And all of my work amounts to correcting my own perception.
Until now I was in a world whose parts seemed disconnected and void of interconnection. That is how I am built on the inside. That is how it was always comfortable for me to see the outer world, and I was on good terms with it. However, today the world on the outside is taking on different forms: it turns out that the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature are tightly interconnected. True, this is not so important to me, yet ecology also matters since my ill-considered actions evoke unpleasant changes in natural phenomena.
But most important is that human society itself is becoming a single “mechanism” to me. Stated differently, the world today is being expressed as a single soul, a single vessel, while I do not wish to recognize that unity. I see that I involuntarily enter the world, that reality literally “pushes” me inside, although this is against my wishes. I want to remain an egoist, but the reality of the single soul is being revealed to me.
Thus, the picture of the broken world is only being depicted in the “curved mirror” of the flawed human consciousness. The faster we understand this and correct our perception, the faster we will achieve success.
[79185]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/12, “600 souls”
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Question: What is the elevator by which we rise to the center of the group?
Answer: I rise by absorbing the desires and aspirations of all the friends. I subdue myself and raise the others by seeing them as more important than me, and thanks to that, I receive power from them.
This power pushes me and enables me to adhere to the center of the group correctly. First, it helps me imagine this center, because I am always confused and keep losing this concept. I have to hold on to it like to a gun sight and constantly correct myself.
We started from this central point because we will deal with it all the time. We grow only on its basis, starting from this point and rising higher and higher. The growth doesn’t simply represent a physical height, but an increasingly growing concentration of the inner connection.
Therefore, in the future workshops, we have to clarify what a desire, a feeling, and an attainment are, how they are connected and to what extent, so that we can attain our root in them, the Creator.
This is practical work which we have to perform all our life and not only in the workshops. I am constantly in a workshop with myself: before the lesson, after the lesson, 24 hours a day, in order to connect “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.” I have to listen to the friends, not just when they say certain words, and hear what their hearts say. I receive all these impressions through the center of the group, through everyone.
The Creator treats us as a corrected system, but I can’t see it this way. Instead I judge it according to my deficiencies. If I correct my egoistic defect just a little, I will join the corrected concept of the group, as the Creator sees it. In order to do that there is no need to wait for the specific time of the workshop: Our whole life is a workshop called internal work, the work of the Creator!
[78967]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, ”Talk About the Workshop”
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Question: What do we give birth to together in the common center of the group?
Answer: Every time in the center of the group, we give birth to the force of connection, unity, guarantee, bestowal, and love above our egoism, on its foundation, but rising above it. And so, we create the condition for the revelation of the upper Light, a place for the revelation of the Creator. It is called Shechina, because Shochen, the Creator, ascends the throne in it.
The center of the group, from the perspective of desires, is a sensation of the extent to which we want to connect all these desires together. Man sees that the whole world depends on him, and on the other hand, he sees the extent to which he depends on the whole world. It is a twofold feeling. One moment, I feel myself standing in front of a perfect system; the next moment, I see that the system is all broken because of lack of my participation in it.
We always reveal two polar opposite qualities. But by reconciling them by compensating with the upper Light, we reach the middle line. This middle line includes in itself a multitude of components; it is not necessarily a direct path but something in the middle between the right line and the left line. It is not simply their averaging-out but their compensation of each other to 100%. A 100% thief and a 100% altruist-philanthropist connect in the middle point and use both qualities in all their force, not by half.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/12, “Talk About the Workshop”
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Question: Does our collective reality exist, or does each one build his own individual reality?
Answer: Our collective reality exists similarly to the way we feel ourselves living in one world, but everyone feels it differently. We cannot even measure in what way our feeling of this world is different. In our superficiality, we cannot be included in each other’s desires, I can’t enter your desire and you can’t enter my desire. Each one has his elementary point, which determines the uniqueness of his personality, which he received from the Creator.
The Creator is our common denominator, the factor that unifies us. Only through Him can we connect. Therefore, the center of the group is the starting point of that place, which is called the Creator, or a desire in which He is revealed.
Only in this central point can we understand one another, and at the same time, we discover that we will never be able to feel what is actually happening in the desire of the friend and what he feels. We connect with each other only through the Creator, and even then it is unconsciously!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/12, ”Talk About the Workshop”
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On May 20, 2012, the club “Zappa” in Tel-Aviv held the premiere of the children’s musical “In The Class with Marshmallow,” created by our friends, played by our actors, to the music of my student Arkadi Duchin.
More than 300 people laughed, sympathized, sang songs together with the actors, and most importantly, became closer to each other. We hope these performances will become a good tradition, carrying the spirit of unity to children and grown-ups.
Opinion (Barry Schwartz, Psychologist): “Barry Schwartz tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today’s Western world is actually making us miserable.
“Infinite choice is paralyzing, Schwartz argues, and exhausting to the human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. … Too much choice undermines happiness. …
“‘Clinical depression has exploded in the industrial world in the last generation. I believe a significant — not the only, but a significant — contributor to this explosion of depression, and also suicide, is that people have experiences that are disappointing because their standards are so high, and then when they have to explain these experiences to themselves, they think they’re at fault. And so the net result is that we do better in general, objectively, and we feel worse. …’
“‘If some of what enables people in our societies to make all of the choices we make were shifted to societies in which people have too few options, not only would those people’s lives be improved, but ours would be improved also. This is what economists call a ‘Pareto-improving move.’ Income redistribution will make everyone better off — not just poor people — because of how all this excess choice plagues us.’”
My Comment: In any case, rational integration and redistribution (equilibration) always brings benefits to everyone—even according to the laws of economics.
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Question: Is the method of integral upbringing something essentially new?
Answer: This is the method for overcoming the crisis. This is a law of nature that modern studies confirm. They show us the picture of the transformation of society to a certain state. For this reason, let’s be ahead of this development and prepare for the changes that it’s assumed that we will overcome through the path of suffering, meaning being pushed towards happiness with a stick. And we do this through conscious advancement and thus, on the contrary, see a good and wonderful ascent in this.
Question: When can we move on from the educational stage towards the upbringing stage?
Answer: It is only possible to transition towards the upbringing process when people who take the integral education courses understand that the crisis is unavoidable and constant. It will bring us towards a common collapse and bankruptcy. This means that the only solution to the crisis is reorganizing the individual and society. When people complete studying this topic and, in general, understand, agree, and are inspired by it, then we can move on to upbringing.
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From KabTV’s “Experimental City: Education” 3/3/12
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Question: Small towns have a special demographic: teenagers who have dropped out of social life.
Answer: They need to be immediately recruited for training courses to become teachers and instructors of integral education and given a full stipend. Ultimately this will cost much less in the local budget than what they’re doing presently. The teenagers need to be turned into truly serious specialists.
Question: Senior citizens are another important and active part of the population. One thing to note is that 70-80% of seniors are women because men live shorter lives.
Answer: Female seniors are the most fruitful members of society. They are devoted helpers in every aspect and especially when it comes to children and grandchildren, that is what is most precious to them. They will gladly toil to change their lives even a little bit.
I don’t see the male retirees being quite as active or useful as women when it comes to being educators. Men are somewhat rigid, whereas women are flexible even into old age. Men over 50 are very difficult to work with, as they are unresponsive. In contrast, women don’t have these age-related restrictions.
Therefore, I think that this demographic of female seniors makes a fertile soil to work with city populations. They will do everything. They will change everything. You can lean on them with nothing to fear, for they are a veritable army.
[78456]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” #23, 3/3/12
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Question: Does a feeling of irritation and hatred towards each other appear during the workshops?
Answer: Not necessarily. We shouldn’t wait for it. But if it appears, it means that we can rise above it. But, in general, we can be in such a good field that it will not appear.
Question: Once, I came to the workshop downhearted and left it full of happiness. Now, I am always looking for this sadness before the workshop. Is it correct?
Answer: No! Why should I look for something, especially something bad? You shouldn’t! I rise from good to better.
Question: Is it desirable that there is no walking around during the workshop?
Answer: No! Only if a person has problems with the functions of the body, then there is nothing you can do; it’s above nature. There are no other excuses!
Naturally, all the phones must be turned off; everything is absolutely quiet: Now, we are working on the ascent to the spiritual world, to the next degree. It is possible that this will happen during one of the workshops, or between them; it doesn’t matter, but in general this action is the ascent to a spiritual degree.
Question: How should you respond if the group suggests that you should leave the workshop because they think that you are disturbing them?
Answer: If the group thinks so, a person must obey. Later, he may require an explanation, but at the moment he has to leave the room, and most importantly quickly, without arguments, to let others continue to unite.
Question: Sometimes pauses occur during the workshops.
Answer: They arise because you don’t want to empathize! You don’t include what the friend says into yourself. Then you would just get a complete picture.
The same is true in the classroom, unless it’s a lesson that is perceived solely by the mind.
Question: Does one need just to hold this center of the group within himself?
Answer: You do not need to hold this center. If you are always trying to be included in the others, you inevitably find yourself at the center.
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From the Virtual Lesson 5/20/12, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah”
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